Friday, August 10, 2012

All God

So, my biggest worry throughout this adoption journey is that WE get the credit and not God... It's common for people who hear our story to say something along the lines of "Wow! That's awesome! Good for you guys! There need to be more people in this world like that."  I don't want the credit. I want people to see God throughout our journey and see that the glory goes to HIM! Not to us! God is the amazing one! God is the awesome one! God is the one who has written this story from beginning to end... If it weren't for Him, we would not have felt the conviction and direct call from God to adopt. HE put that in us. HE put the love for two boys who are not our own so deeply and intertwined into our hearts that it seems "normal" for us....

But, if you haven't seen God at all in our story, here's one more bit that may help you see Him....

We had been waiting for medical slips to be submitted to embassy for 2 weeks and had no idea when we would get them. We needed them quickly. As I said in my previous post, Eyob has severe plagiocephaly and time is so important right now for him. I knew the longer we waited to be submitted, the longer it would be before we could bring him home, potentially causing it to be too late for any such treatment. On top of that, it could take 2-8 more weeks (or even longer) once we were submitted to clear. I decided to e-mail the embassy to ask what our options were for expediting the boys' cases and briefly explained Eyob's medical issues. They said they could expedite the paperwork once we were submitted. I was hopeful!

Then I got the blow just a few hours later that Eyob had been put on medication for exposure to TB and that the doctor would not give the "okay" slip until he finished the meds. We had no idea how long that would be and that it could possibly be an additional few weeks. We didn't have that time. Every week that went by was one week less treatment for Eyob. I decided to once again email the embassy to see if there was anyway we could go ahead submit without their medical slip so they could work on the investigation while we waited for the slip. Usually they don't. We prayed. We asked for prayers from our church, church elders, and friends. The embassy said yes, go ahead and submit.

So we submitted on Wednesday. Knowing that the intake screening process can take 1-2 weeks, and then the investigation starts which can take another couple weeks to a couple months. We were hopeful. We prayed. We asked for more prayers from our church and church elders. Ilana prayed that we could bring them home soon and I heard her constantly talking in her room to God about it. She came out and said "Mommy, God told me they would be home in about 2 weeks." I said "Well, honey, I know you want that, but more than likely it'll be longer than that. You can surely pray that, though!" (one of these days I'm going to finally learn to trust her intuition... Sometimes I wonder if she has a direct line to God...)

24 hours after submission, we got an e-mail saying they completed the intake screening and would begin investigation (again, usually this takes 1-2 weeks). Not even 48 hours later we got an e-mail at 2:45am saying Eyob had cleared! Did you read that?! Eyob CLEARED!!! ONLY God could do that!! We then got an e-mail just a minute later requesting the phone number of a police officer for Mikiyas' case. Immediately, I got out of bed, woke Michael up, told him, and we began searching frantically for our in-country director's phone number to make sure he had gotten the same email so he could send the phone number to them. Hopeful that Mikiyas could clear, too. We didn't want to have to go get Eyob and leave Mikiyas behind. That poor sweet boy would be heartbroken and wouldn't understand...

After an hour, I was about to give up and just call the Ethiopian police department myself to find the man's number. But Michael finally found the scrap of paper that we had written the director's number on months ago and Michael called him via Skype. He tried over and over for about 15 minutes because the call wouldn't go through (a common thing in Ethiopia). Finally, Woudneh answered, Michael told him about the e-mail and Woudneh replied with an "I'm on it." and a few minutes later sent the number to the embassy.

By that time, it was 4:45. I knew I needed to get sleep, but it was hard... I was able to get an hour more and then just got up to take a shower and to get busy. I have a LOT of stuff to do before we get the boys! Finish laundry, get their clothes hung up, finish up the house, and later get more necessities for them (like socks, shoes, pants, onesies, bottles, diapers, and carseats!).

We have NOT gotten the clearance for Mikiyas but are hoping to possibly Monday? The embassy closes early on Fridays. Will you please pray for a miracle that Mikiyas will be cleared?? We want to travel next week, but can't until we receive notification that he cleared, too.

Seriously, though. How else can you explain this? Something that was supposed to take a few weeks to a couple months took not even 48 hours?! God! ONLY GOD!!!!!!

So... Now what? If Mikiyas clears on Monday, we hope to travel sometime next week. It all depends on plane tickets as many are becoming sold out! If we do travel next week, Ilana was right.  They will be home in about 2 weeks. Amazing!!! We will be flying out of Tampa so for anyone who wants to make the long drive up there (it will be worth it, promise!!) I'll update with details on Facebook. :)

Thank you for all the prayers in the meantime!! So excited and feeling so thankful and blessed!!!

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